


Trial and Error

by Lojuba



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Apathetic Naruto Uzumaki, Coming of Age, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Growing Up Together, Healing, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 16:08:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20392435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lojuba/pseuds/Lojuba
Summary: Naruto sucked in a deep breath.Why would anyone show him this?It couldn't be a Sharingan that had thrown him into the Genjutsu.He was pretty sure that he hadn’t looked at anything besides the fuck all beast-ball, that had sailed towards him.If that thing had hypnotic powers, too, he was done.





	Trial and Error

**Author's Note:**

> ‘Dobe’ and ‘Teme’ will be translated as Git and Jerk.

There were not a lot of things Naruto truly feared in this world.  
  
Life had taught him better than that.

But standing on this battlefield, watching his desperate friends try and fail to survive against the continuous onslaught of an all-consuming and horrid power, almost brought him to his knees.

The last few days had felt like a fever dream.  
  
He’d overcome his darkness, made peace with the Kyuubi and fought for his right to partake in the battle.  
  
Not only did that last part waste time and resources, it also pissed him off greatly.

Usually, he really wasn’t one to hold grudges, but these entitled old geezers, who called themselves Kage, could seriously kiss his ass.  
  
He’d done nothing but push and prevail in the face of an adversary so much greater, than anything else he’d ever encountered, just to realize that if only one of the past Kage had taken action, looked closer and not blatantly ignored the issue or glazed over it, they wouldn’t be where they were today.  
  
At the beginning of the end.

  
-  


Naruto had always known that the world wasn’t as black and white as he’d been taught.  
  
Being confronted with the proof that that knowledge held true, was not easy. Especially not, when faced with the consequences of how badly their leaders had failed them.

He could not do anything more than watch with bated breath as the lines of their defense were decimated.

He couldn't help but think that there was something very black and white about that sight.

  
-  
  
  
His Kage Bunshin were doing what they could. Hell, he was doing what he could, but it was just too much.

Kurama had stopped talking to him for quite some time, now and Naruto could only guess that he wasn’t the only one who had lost hope.

Overwhelmed didn’t even begin to describe what he was feeling, never mind the fact that he had somehow ended up in a leading position.  
  
The thought that they seriously expected him to make this right, was almost hilarious.

Almost.

He’d never been the smartest. Sure, he had guts, he was intuitive and empathetic, but even he realized he didn’t have what it took, to lead all these people to their death.

If he wanted to be sentimental about it, he’d probably wax poetically about the beauty in the unity of it all.  
  
Former enemies fighting together against a greater foe and all that crap.

The only thing he saw were foot soldiers being mindlessly killed by monsters, accomplishing little to nothing.

He honestly couldn’t have given two fucks about Tobi being Obito, the misunderstood sad Uchiha or whatever.  
  
Sure, being manipulated and used sucked, but _come on_.  
  
  
-

What was left to say?  
  
This was a nightmare come to life and the longer Naruto watched the more he realized that there was going to be no winner at the end of all this meaningless destruction.

At the back of his mind he registered Sasuke exclaiming some bullshit about being Hokage.  
  
It didn’t even rile him up.  
  
Sure, why not?  
  
The unstable egomaniac traitor wants to rule?  
  
Good for him.  
  
He wouldn’t be their first unstable leader.

He realized in that moment that he’d lost it.  
  
It had been ripped away layer by layer, death by death.  
  
His unwavering believe in being able to accomplish whatever was expected.

Watching strangers try to stand their ground, as they blindly followed anyone that gave them hope, get absolutely eradicated mere yards away from him, while he couldn’t do anything, was an eye-opening experience.

He stopped contemplating his shit fate in life, while walking towards what would unmistakably be his execution.  
  
His chakra burned bright and golden through the darkness of the night and the last thing he thought as he faced the Beast Ball of the ten-tails, with Madara and Kaguya behind it, was, ‘There are enough people waiting on me.’

  
-

For a moment there was only light.  
  
So much light, bright and unforgiving and all-encompassing and then he hit the ground, feeling lighter than he had in years, staring up at the tree in front of the academy.  
  
The one with the swing he had spent a good third of his depressing childhood on, perpetually moping.

‘What?’ He mumbled dazedly, but before he could think of anything else to do or say, Iruka was right up in his face, looking worried.  
  
‘Naruto? What’s going on?’ He shook his shoulder slightly.

‘Naruto?’

Naruto stared at the man before him, eyes wide and scared and only whispered ‘You’re dead.’

He’d seen the man die mere moments before the attack and realized immediately that this had to be some kind of twisted genjutsu.

Naruto was about to shove his former teacher away, but when he pulled up his hands, he saw that they were tiny.  
  
The hands of a child.

He shook as he stared at the man and the kids behind him, some of the kids he’d seen die as adults just a few days ago.  
  
‘Naruto?’ His teacher asked again, his face looked more than a little worried. ‘What are you talking about?’

Naruto however, was working on automatisms, so he stopped and watched Iruka over, searching for the other man’s weapon pouch.  
  
There was a kunai in there.  
  
You could break a genjutsu with pain.  
  
He knew that.  
  
He could_ do_ that.

So, before he could think better of it, he had the kunai in his hands and was about to shove it in his thigh, when Iruka slapped it out of his hand and detained him.

‘What do you think you are doing?’ He shouted angrily.

‘I’m trying to break this bullshit of a genjutsu, you sick fuck!’ Naruto screamed while trashing against the hold his teacher had on him. 

His teacher not able to let the small child go, in fear that Naruto would try to hurt himself again, knocked him out and handed him over to an Anbu operative that had just shushined onto the scene.

‘I’ll take him to the hospital.’ The masked shinobi, reassured, while Iruka ran a hand over his face, but before he could say or ask anything else, the Anbu operative was gone.

When he looked towards his class, he saw pale faces.  
  
No one joked about the trouble maker.  
  
Naruto had tried to shove a Kunai into his leg and that had been scary for everyone.  
  
They were only 7 years old, after all.

-

When Naruto woke up again, he immediately thought, _this can’t be right_.

He was in a hospital bed, in a stark white room and heard angry voices form outside.  
  
‘What do you mean, you can’t?’ That was definitely the third Hokage, because fuck his life, that’s why.

‘The seal is designed in a way that keeps others out of his mind. It would have horrendous consequences if a Jinchuuriki could be manipulated. The Yondaime took extra measures to prevent people from looking into his head.’ 

‘He’s seven years old and tried to stab himself with a Kunai to dispel a genjutsu, when he didn’t even know the basics of what chakra is a mere week ago!’ The Hokage called out angrily.

‘The doctors think that he was poisoned. Tricked. Kids are openly cruel to him and their parents encourage it. There are enough poison users in the village that are capable of leaving an untraceable hallucinatory. It just takes one brat to put a little drop in his water bottle and he’s done. Maybe they hoped he saw something that would make him attack anyone? Prove them right that he’s a danger to the village. Genjutsu basics are all over the beginner books. You told him to apply himself, didn’t you? Maybe he read ahead and panicked when he hallucinated.’

‘Kushina was impervious to all poisons as an adult, I don’t know if it was the same throughout her childhood though.’ The Hokage answered thoughtfully.

Well, that proved that they didn’t know anything. Naruto’s body had always burned through poisons in seconds, thanks to Kurama, even in his childhood.

The Hokage continued in an angry pressed voice. ‘There will be repercussions. The villagers have ignored my orders for too long, if anyone is seen acting openly hostile towards the boy, be it insults, threats, or anything else malicious. There’ll be consequences.’  
  
He ground out, before continuing.

‘Those who don’t follow my orders will be sentenced for insubordination. The civilians, that are enjoying their peaceful life here, within the safety of Konoha, shall be threatened with substantial fees and if they don’t change their ways, I want them banished. We just lost a lot of shinobi in the last war. We can’t afford to lose our Jinchuuriki to ignorance. If that happens, we’ll have another war on our hands.’ The Hokage had sounded angrier then Naruto had ever heard him.

The other man seemed to agree. ‘This can’t go on. There’ll be a public service announcement tomorrow.’

When another voice cut in, Naruto’s eyes filled with unshed tears.  
  
Jiraiya was there, too. ‘It’s worse enough, that they think they can get away with openly ostracizing and antagonizing the child of the Yondaime. They seem to forget that this kid is this village’s safety net. Attacks need to be handled with zero tolerance.’

Naruto sucked in a deep breath.

This was a cruel genjutsu.  
  
It didn’t make any sense.  
  
Why would anyone show him this?  
  
It couldn't be a Sharingan that had thrown him into this. He hadn’t looked at anything since the fuck-all-beast-ball had sailed towards him.  
  
If that thing had freaking hypnotic powers too, he was done.  
  
But.

Could this be real?  
  
Was he truly in the past?  
  
Struggling to breath, he reached out towards the doctor’s instruments.

He sighed, because he knew that thinking this through wouldn’t get him anywhere.

Shaking much too little hands grabbed a scalpel and promptly drove it through his thigh.

He gasped and hyperventilated as he saw the blood well up and saturate the bedsheet through his clothing.  
  
For a few moments he watched his wound in fascination.  
  
Nothing had changed.  
  
This was not a genjutsu.

Of course, that was the moment the medic walked in and started screaming, when she saw what he had done to himself.

_Great._  
  
Before he could formulate anything else, he felt light headed again.

Then there was nothing except for the peaceful subterfuge of unconsciousness and wasn't that the fucking saddest thing he'd ever thought.

-

‘The council won’t like—’ The scream from the nurse interrupted them and they quickly ran towards Naruto’s room.

Against the white bed the blood stains stood out starkly while the small boy with the blond hair and the whisker marks, appeared incredibly pale.  
  
The tear-stained little face seemed to push Sarutobi past his breaking point.  
  
‘It’s good that I don’t need the council to agree with my decisions, then.’ The Hokage spat venomously.  
  
There were no more objections.

-

The following days passed in a blur for Naruto. He had healed as exceptionally fast as ever and had been sent home after a few interrogations.  
  
Once he’d been deemed well enough to go home, he had been escorted back to his home by ANBU.  
  
He noticed how people were making an effort to look or even smile at him. He hated that almost as much as the open hatred he’d received before.

Naruto felt numb when he walked into his apartment.  
  
The ANBU had left him there to stake out the neighborhood, which was just as well, because the boy had to make a few decisions.

He’d been hopeless the last time he was even remotely coherent.  
  
Hopeless and on a suicide mission, as a figurehead of a desperate war.  
  
Now that he’d been thrown in, what was obviously, his past, he started to evaluate what he’d been doing.

He had already changed something significant, without even meaning to, so there was no point in stopping now.

He wasn’t naive enough to think that he could save everyone.  
  
The Uchiha were probably already dead, he didn’t remember when that happened exactly.  
  
And if they weren’t, they still didn’t have a fighting chance, mostly because Danzo wanted them dead and the Hokage condoned it and he was fucking seven years old and couldn't do a thing about it.

If they didn't use Itachi, it would just be another Root agent, that did the dirty work.

Tobi was already a maniac and Pain had already lost his friend.

‘What good does this do me? If I can’t even change anything?’ He mumbled to himself, as he pressed his forehead against the cool wood of his kitchen table.

**You could kill the Uchiha brat before he loses it.**

_Kurama?_

**No, it is I, your fairy godmother.**

Naruto smirked. _Good to know even space time bullshit can’t break the seal._

**We’re in this together, brat.**

_So, what do I do?_

**Get stronger faster and take those who threaten the peace out, when the time comes.**

_I won’t hesitate._

**Learned your lesson on mercy, did you, now?**

_Can’t afford it anymore._

After searching through the apartment and finding basic homewares, he went through his fridge and quickly realized that he needed to throw out the few things he had. He also noticed that he couldn’t even reach them, without his freaking step stool.  
  
Fuck his life.

His body was weak, and he knew that having the knowledge, meant very little without the muscle memory or the strength, otherwise Sakura would have been the strongest of them all, from the very beginning.  
  
He would have to start all over again, which sucked.  
  
Majorly.  
  
Not feeling safe was not something he was used to anymore, but he wasn’t even going to touch that emotional mess with a ten foot stick.  
  
One problem at a time.  
  
He shuddered thinking about how long it would take to get his body even remotely up to par.

However, there were also pros.  
  
A lot of the training he’d done when he was younger had been unsupervised and uncontrolled, which had led to difficulties in later training.  
  
This had become especially obvious when he’d trained with Jiraiya.  
  
The man had to destroy him and rebuild him from the ground up.  
  
This time he could save himself a lot of trouble, by doing it right the first time.

  
  
There were a few harsh knocks on his door, that pulled him from his thoughts.  
  
  
  
If there was someone dangerous out there, ANBU would have already intervened.  
  
Also, in Naruto’s experience the bad guys seldom knocked.  
  
So, he opened the door just to look into the panicked face of a young Sasuke Uchiha.   
  
Bad guys apparently did knock, who knew?  
  
He sighed.

‘Git.’ Sasuke said cautiously, gaging him.  
  
‘Jerk.’ Naruto replied without thinking about it.  
  
It was another one of those automatism.

So far, he had: When in doubt impale yourself with a sharp object and always insult Sasuke right back. Great.

Then his eyes widened.


End file.
